The Senior Ser­vices Coun­cil of San Juan Coun­ty shares an update about the progress of their oper­a­tional tran­si­tion process.

Ear­li­er this spring, the Board of Direc­tors of the Senior Ser­vices Coun­cil of San Juan Coun­ty vot­ed to trans­fer the oper­a­tional func­tions of its three Dis­trict Com­mit­tees to three stand-alone non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions. The Orcas, Lopez, and San Juan Dis­trict Com­mit­tees have been work­ing toward a seam­less tran­si­tion since April. At its meet­ing on Aug. 18, the Board amend­ed its bylaws to move Dis­trict elec­tions from Octo­ber to Jan­u­ary to help the SSCSJC remain con­sis­tent as it transitions.

All three Dis­trict Com­mit­tees are cur­rent­ly work­ing with San Juan Coun­ty and What­com Coun­cil on Aging to trans­fer busi­ness agree­ments for trans­porta­tion and nutri­tion pro­grams to the three new non­prof­its. With sep­a­rate non­prof­its, patrons of senior cen­ters should notice lit­tle if any changes oth­er than improved services.

The tran­si­tion is expect­ed to be com­plet­ed over the next sev­er­al months. Dis­trict Com­mit­tees will con­tin­ue to oper­ate their senior cen­ters just as they do now until the new non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions are ready to assume their new roles. Dona­tions ear­marked for a spe­cif­ic cen­ter will con­tin­ue to go to that island’s senior cen­ter. Cen­ters do not antic­i­pate any decrease in ser­vices, class­es, activ­i­ties or offer­ings. Instead, the tran­si­tion peri­od is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to pre­pare for improved respon­sive­ness and engage­ment as each loca­tion pre­pares to move for­ward independently.

Addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion about the tran­si­tion is post­ed on the Mullis Cen­ter web­site.

Contributed photo

Shan­non Dean shares a heart­warm­ing sto­ry of two long-time islanders.

Of course I Googled it — what is the sym­bol for 70 years of mar­riage? As it turns out, it is plat­inum. Not what I would have thought for sym­bol­iz­ing 70 years togeth­er. But appar­ent­ly plat­inum sym­bol­izes the strength, rar­i­ty, endurance, and puri­ty of true love. Yes it does.

I hap­pen to be for­tu­nate enough to be a part of Louise and John Dustrude’s lives. I first fell in like with the younger of their two hand­some sons and lat­er it was true love. I dis­tinct­ly remem­ber a con­ver­sa­tion I had with Tim when we first start­ed dat­ing, and it went some­thing like this:

Me: “You don’t real­ly believe in true love, do you? I mean that’s just in nov­els and movies. It’s not some­thing real.”

Tim: “Sure I do.”

Me: “Oh yeah, give me one exam­ple of some­one you know that has expe­ri­enced true love.”

Tim: (with­out hes­i­ta­tion or thought) “My parents.”

It’s hard to imag­ine being togeth­er with some­one you love for 70 years, and still lik­ing them, not to men­tion lov­ing them. And yet these two charm­ing peo­ple are just that — in love with each oth­er now as much as the day they mar­ried in 1952, if not more. I have had the best for­tune of being part of their lives for 24 years and can bear wit­ness to this rela­tion­ship that is as unique as the indi­vid­u­als that they are. If only you could sell the admi­ra­tion and respect they have for one anoth­er, you would nev­er need anoth­er thing the rest of your life. Imag­ine two peo­ple who laugh togeth­er, walk togeth­er, trav­el togeth­er, hold hands (some­times when no one is look­ing) and even hug and kiss each other.

You might see them rid­ing around town on their three-wheeled tri­cy­cles that they refer to as doo­dle­bugs. They exude a pas­sion for life that emanates and touch­es every­one who knows them. They’ve cer­tain­ly touched my life and I am for­ev­er grate­ful they have.

So kudos, Louise and John — also known as Plucky Broad and Himself.

Click or tap any image to view this col­lec­tion as a slideshow.

Con­tin­ue Reading

• The U.S. Coast Guard has called off the search for the nine miss­ing pas­sen­gers from the Sun­day after­noon crash of a North­west Sea­planes DHC‑3 Tur­bine Otter that was bound for Ren­ton after leav­ing Fri­day Har­bor. The body of a tenth pas­sen­ger was recov­ered on Sun­day. The air­craft crashed in Mutiny Bay off the west side of Whid­bey Island. At the time, weath­er con­di­tions near Mutiny Bay were scat­tered clouds, with a vis­i­bil­i­ty of 10 miles, accord­ing to the Nation­al Weath­er Service.
• Accord­ing to the Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Ecol­o­gy, dive crews have fin­ished cut­ting away free-float­ing net­ting from the sunken fish­ing ves­sel Aleut­ian Isle. They have also secured all remain­ing entan­gle­ment haz­ards and have start­ed to attach the rig­ging that will be used to lift the ves­sel from a depth of more than 200 feet off the west side of San Juan Island.
• San Juan Island Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre’s screen­ing of The Book of Dust from The Nation­al The­atre in Lon­don takes place tonight at 7 p.m.
• The San Juan Islands Sculp­ture Park’s month­ly bird walk hap­pens tomor­row from 8–10 a.m. Local bird­er Tyler Davis will lead the walk, which focus­es on iden­ti­fi­ca­tion by sight and sound, and the life his­to­ries of some of the island’s most pop­u­lar res­i­dent species. Every­one is wel­come, dona­tions are wel­come, and binoc­u­lars are recommended.
• Arch­i­pel­ago Col­lec­tive’s Cham­ber Music Fes­ti­val takes place this Fri­day, Sat­ur­day, and Sun­day, with four per­for­mances over three days at Brick­works and the San Juan Islands Muse­um of Art.

Have some­thing to share with the Island? Whether the news is big or small, let us know!

Julia Tur­ney, San Juan Coun­ty Mas­ter Gar­den­er, sends along an update about the sta­tus of our local bigleaf maples.

Our bigleaf maple leaves have been look­ing very gray this sum­mer and many trees have leaves that are turn­ing brown and drop­ping from the trees.

The cul­prit is pow­dery mildew. There are sev­er­al types of fun­gi that attack only maples. Pow­dery mildew fun­gi thrive with cool, humid nights that stim­u­late spore pro­duc­tion and warm (70 to 80 F), dry days that allow for spore spread. Fun­gal spores are spread by the wind. The fruit­ing body of the fun­gus can over­win­ter or live in buds infect­ed in the pre­vi­ous sea­son. The com­bi­na­tion of stress from our dry sum­mer and dam­age from fun­gi is caus­ing the leaves to turn brown and drop.

There are fungi­cides that treat pow­dery mildew but they do best when used before symp­toms devel­op and few are good at erad­i­cat­ing fun­gi. Many have to be used every sev­en to 14 days. The San Juan Coun­ty Exten­sion WSU Mas­ter Gar­den­er pro­gram does not rec­om­mend that home­own­ers spray trees over ten feet tall. Giv­en the num­ber and size of bigleaf maples in our coun­ty, treat­ment is not practical.

Bigleaf maple trees should recov­er next year, and as long as the trees are not sub­ject to the same stress for a cou­ple of years in a row, they will not die from the pow­dery mildew infes­ta­tion. Addi­tion­al­ly, there are so many affect­ed trees and leaf lit­ter that treat­ment isn’t prac­ti­cal. Leaves can be col­lect­ed and com­post­ed for oth­er uses, as the fun­gus is maple spe­cif­ic. Com­post­ing is a good option for man­ag­ing falling leaves. The fun­gus feeds on live leaf tis­sue so it will not mul­ti­ply on dead leaves and the spores will break down in the com­post process.

For fur­ther ref­er­ence, Wash­ing­ton State Uni­ver­si­ty Hort­sense’s web­site has gen­er­al infor­ma­tion on pow­dery mildew. The San Juan Coun­ty Exten­sion WSU Mas­ter Gar­den­er pro­gram office in Fri­day Har­bor is avail­able to pro­vide answers to gar­den­ing and land­scape ques­tions. It can be reached at 360–370-7663 or mg.sanjuancounty@wsu.edu.

• Fri­day Har­bor High School foot­ball lost 34–14 to South Whid­bey High School in a road game on Fri­day night.
• Accord­ing to this KUOW arti­cle, the fish­ing ves­sel Aleut­ian Isle briefly ran aground at the entrance to Cap Sante Mari­na the day before it sank off the west side of San Juan Island three weeks ago, per eye­wit­ness accounts and photographs.
• The Wash­ing­ton Depart­ment of Fish and Wildlife seeks pub­lic feed­back about rules per­tain­ing to ves­sels oper­at­ing near South­ern Res­i­dent killer whales. WDFW is required to review the rules and issue a report every two years with rec­om­men­da­tions for pos­si­ble changes.
• Tomor­row is the last Sun­day of the year for Mar­ket Place. It’ll be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. — and then closed on Mon­day for the holiday.
• Julie’s Nurs­ery at 150 Web St. is hav­ing a Labor Day week­end sale, with select­ed indoor and out­door plants avail­able at 50 per­cent off.
• The Library is offer­ing free Eng­lish class­es for adults on Tues­days and Thurs­days from Sept. 22 through Dec. 15. All lev­els of speak­ers are wel­come, and par­tic­i­pants may bring their chil­dren with them. The Library will pro­vide all mate­ri­als, along with refreshments.
• The 2:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. shows today at the Palace The­atre will have on-screen cap­tions for the hear­ing impaired. Elvis is at 2:30 p.m.; Top Gun: Mav­er­ick is at 3 p.m.

Have some­thing to share with the Island? Whether the news is big or small, let us know!

Jodie Comer in Prima Facie — Photo credit: Helen Murray

SJCT shares news about the the­atre and opera screen­ings tak­ing place through­out the rest of the year.

Thanks to the sup­port of the McGee Foun­da­tion, San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre will be screen­ing selec­tions from The Nation­al The­atre in Lon­don and The Met­ro­pol­i­tan Opera in New York on the big screen in Fri­day Harbor.

The screen­ings kick off with Nation­al Theatre’s The Book of Dust by Philip Pull­man, adapt­ed by Bry­ony Lav­ery, on Tues­day, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. On Tues­day, Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. you can see actress Jodie Com­er — known for her star­ring role on the TV series Killing Eve — as she makes her West End debut in Pri­ma Facie by Suzie Miller. The first screen­ing from The Met­ro­pol­i­tan Opera is on Sun­day, Dec. 18 at 1 p.m. with Cherubini’s rarely per­formed mas­ter­piece Medea.

Tick­ets are $20 for adults and $10 for stu­dents. For com­plete show times or to pur­chase tick­ets, vis­it the San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre web­site or call the box office at 360–378-3210.

As the vol­un­teer fundrais­er coor­di­na­tor for the Fri­day Har­bor Ath­let­ic Asso­ci­a­tion, we would like to thank the San Juan Island Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion for the gen­er­ous grant they gift­ed the FHAA this year. Their grant cov­ered par­tic­i­pa­tion fees for foot­ball play­ers and cheer­lead­ers that would oth­er­wise be unable to play due to the cost of tuition fees, fer­ry fares and trav­el expens­es. Once again, we are remind­ed at how for­tu­nate we are to live in a com­mu­ni­ty like San Juan Island that has oppor­tu­ni­ties such as the SJICF that so gen­er­ous­ly sup­ports our island youth. Words are not ade­quate to express our grat­i­tude towards SJICF. Your schol­ar­ship pos­i­tive­ly affect­ed many island chil­dren and for that we are very thankful.

Jil­lian Reimer
San Juan Island

A two-month hunt­ing sea­son for black-tailed deer opened on the west­ern side of Mount Grant Pre­serve yes­ter­day, accord­ing to the San Juan Coun­ty Con­ser­va­tion Land Bank. The sea­son includes spe­cif­ic peri­ods for ear­ly archery (Sept. 1–23), muz­zle­load­ers (Sept. 24-Oct. 2), and mod­ern firearms (Oct. 15–31).

“The remote nature of the west­ern por­tion of Mount Grant Pre­serve makes it a good can­di­date for hunt­ing access and pro­vides an oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­tin­ue the recre­ation­al and cul­tur­al tra­di­tion of hunt­ing on San Juan Island,” says Tan­ja Williamson, out­reach and vol­un­teer coor­di­na­tor for the Land Bank. “The park­ing area only allows for one vehi­cle and a hunt­ing par­ty is lim­it­ed to three indi­vid­u­als. As extra pre­cau­tions, hunter orange vests are pro­vid­ed at trail­heads and notice is posted.”

Hunters must review and fol­low all Wash­ing­ton Depart­ment of Fish and Wildlife hunt­ing reg­u­la­tions. Writ­ten per­mis­sion to hunt at Mount Grant Pre­serve is also required. To obtain per­mis­sion, hunters can use WDFW’s online reser­va­tion sys­tem, which allows for one hunt­ing par­ty per day.

The Land Bank has also opened hunt­ing access at the Lopez Hill Pre­serve for the same two-month season.

“Hunt­ing at Lopez Hill was hap­pen­ing pri­or to Land Bank man­age­ment; it was a Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources (DNR) prop­er­ty,” Tan­ja says. “With the his­to­ry of hunt­ing already occur­ring, and the size and con­di­tion of the prop­er­ty, [Land Bank] staff believed lim­it­ed-sea­son deer hunt­ing could con­tin­ue with­out com­pro­mis­ing oth­er man­age­ment objec­tives, and includ­ed it in the man­age­ment plan. Man­age­ment plans are cre­at­ed through a thought­ful process that includes com­plet­ed draft plans made avail­able to the pub­lic and the Land Bank Com­mis­sion­ers for com­ment. Those com­ments are then reviewed and incor­po­rat­ed where appro­pri­ate, and a final plan is then sub­mit­ted to Com­mis­sion for approval.”

Per­mis­sion to hunt at Lopez Hill Pre­serve can be obtained by email­ing Tan­ja.

The Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Soci­ety of Fri­day Har­bor shares a look at the adopt­able ani­mals of the week — two small 12-year-old dogs who came to San Juan Island by way of Texas.

Meet the newest dynam­ic duo — Wil­low and Stu­art. They are a sis­ter and broth­er who recent­ly came to us after their own­er grew ill and had to go into hos­pice care. Through this new life change of theirs, and in all areas, Wil­low and Stu­art live by the adage that “we’re bet­ter togeth­er.” Whether they’re pos­ing pret­ty, play­ing in the yard, hang­ing out with their favorite humans, or help­ing shel­ter staff in the recep­tion area, Wil­low and Stu­art strong­ly believe that every­thing is more fun when done together.

Although these sib­lings are a per­fect pair, you’ll nev­er have to wor­ry about feel­ing like a third wheel around them because they enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly share their love with every­one they meet. Wil­low and Stu­art have eas­i­ly made friends with adults, kids, strangers, and oth­er dogs. But please, no cats.

Although we’ll miss them when they go, we know that Wil­low and Stu­art still have a lot of love to give and deserve their own fam­i­ly. They would love to find a home where there is a mix of activ­i­ty and lazi­ness. Wil­low and Stu­art are in their senior years, so they — wise with age — know the val­ue in after­noon naps and rest. But they also still want to be able to play when their youth­ful spir­it takes hold, which it often does. As if you weren’t already sold on these sweet angels, they are also great on a leash, do well in the car, and are crate and pot­ty trained.

Learn more about Wil­low and Stu­art here.

Contributed photo

As sum­mer comes to an end, we sense the sea­son­al changes, a cool breeze, and the turn­ing of the leaves. If you are any­thing like me, you get an autum­nal urge to sign up for class­es. If, like me, you appre­ci­ate a gen­tle solu­tion sure to improve the qual­i­ty of your life, I high­ly rec­om­mend Katerina’s chair yoga class taught through the Mullis Center.

If you have been putting off get­ting into an exer­cise class because get­ting up and down off the floor has got­ten hard, stand­ing for peri­ods of time is uncom­fort­able, or you sim­ply do not like to exer­cise even though you know you should, this class is for you.

The class is gen­tle yet decep­tive­ly thor­ough. When you have fin­ished a ses­sion with Kate­ri­na you will feel every part of your body has been gen­tly stretched, strength­ened, and invig­o­rat­ed. Plus, you may find you have a smile on your face that was not there before. Katerina’s class­es are uplifting.

I have ede­ma in my low­er legs and real­ly appre­ci­ate the leg tap­ping, knee mas­sage, and ankle rota­tions in par­tic­u­lar because they so specif­i­cal­ly address my issue. I also love how even sit­ting we are able to address the entire body. Every time it lifts my spirits.

Says stu­dent There­sa Simendinger, “Katerina’s class­es are one real­ly good thing to come out of the last few years! She has kept spir­its up and bod­ies feel­ing great! We are lucky to have her!”

You don’t have to be a senior to take this class. It would ben­e­fit any­one, espe­cial­ly if you have mobil­i­ty issues, but Kate­ri­na does have a spe­cial affin­i­ty for seniors. “For the last 12 years, I’ve been design­ing move­ment and well­ness pro­grams for seniors, and I always look for­ward to spend­ing time with them,” she explains. “I find this work very mean­ing­ful since seniors are one of the most under­served pop­u­la­tions. Ped­a­gog­i­cal­ly speak­ing, the typ­i­cal chair yoga exer­cis­es on the mar­ket lack com­pas­sion­ate under­stand­ing of their day-to-day chal­lenges, and what senior peo­ple expe­ri­ence in their phys­i­cal and men­tal body, so I feel strong­ly about con­tin­u­ing this work.”

Class­es are held via live Zoom at 9:30 a.m. on Tues­days with a record­ing of each week’s class avail­able to use as often as you’d like dur­ing each week. I appre­ci­ate the recod­ed class­es because I enjoy the flex­i­bil­i­ty of choos­ing what time of day works best for me.

Class­es are a sug­gest­ed $6 per class. The Mullis Cen­ter is com­mit­ted to mak­ing these class­es avail­able. If the cost is pro­hib­i­tive, a slid­ing scale is avail­able. To sign up for the class, arrange to get the record­ed class, or learn more about the slid­ing scale, con­tact Anna at the Mullis Cen­ter at 360–370-7520 or info@mulliscenter.org.

Fri­day Har­bor’s LTAC is still accept­ing appli­ca­tions for its 2023 grant cycle.

The Town of Fri­day Harbor’s Lodg­ing Tax Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee is accept­ing appli­ca­tions until 4:30 p.m. on Mon­day, Sept. 12 for grants to fund the pro­mo­tion of events and activ­i­ties tak­ing place with­in the town in 2023. Pref­er­ence will be giv­en to those oper­a­tions and activ­i­ties that encour­age tourists to vis­it dur­ing the shoul­der and win­ter sea­sons. Sum­mer activ­i­ties are accept­able but should be sched­uled to avoid what are rec­og­nized as high-traf­fic weekends.

New this year, appli­ca­tions may be sub­mit­ted by email or as hard­copy. Inter­est­ed par­ties should review the Request for Pro­pos­al and com­plete the LTAC grant appli­ca­tion.

LTAC grants are award­ed annu­al­ly by the Town Coun­cil and are fund­ed with the state’s hotel-motel tax col­lect­ed on all in-town lodg­ing stays of less than 30 days in length.